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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22475902">Dalliance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/minorthirds/pseuds/minorthirds'>minorthirds</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XIV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ambiguously Draconic Estinien, Blow Jobs, Canon Compliant, Explicit Sexual Content, Hand Jobs, M/M, Non-Human Genitalia, Rope Bondage, Under-negotiated Kink, circa 5.0, please don't look at me</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:21:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,262</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22475902</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/minorthirds/pseuds/minorthirds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Estinien has nightmares.</p><p>In Ilsabard, nightmares are dangerous.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gaius van Baelsar/Estinien Wyrmblood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>186</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dalliance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>~what can i say except~ i'm sorry. i am so fucking sorry</p><p>i joked about this and then i was possessed and wrote this all in essentially one sitting. lesson learned. never make jokes</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As traveling companions went, Estinien was hardly the most abysmal.</p><p>The man was silent, orderly enough, and strangely given to the more mindless tasks required of camping on the road; routinely Gaius would awake to wash hanging from a line of rope strung between two branches, their canteens refilled, and their campsite broken with only Gaius' bedroll remaining as proof that two men had slept here the night prior.</p><p>Considering Gaius rarely slept until dawn, let alone past it, something was amiss. There were not enough hours in the night, even this far north in Ilsabard where the sun shone cold and distant and disappeared early as though a secret lover.</p><p>Curious though he was, however, he knew better than to pry, already passing familiar with the irritated, crisp, and altogether useless reply he would get were he to ask a personal question not immediately relevant to their endeavor.</p><p>Regardless of Estinien's proclivity toward secrecy, Gaius had his answer on the fifth night.</p><p>He awoke with a start and was on his feet afore the dream had fully left him, having drawn his gunblade from beneath his pillow (they took no watches but slept prepared, if Estinien had been doing <em>any sleeping at all</em>). Only at the lack of strange figures in the area did Gaius realize what had woken him; a strange sound like a yelling roar, too harsh to be a shout and too human to be a growl.</p><p>On the cot across the smouldering embers of a small fire lay Estinien, though "lay" was too calm a word; he damn near <em>convulsed,</em> fingers digging blindly into the soil he had twisted onto, eyes rolling sightlessly beneath wrenched-closed lids. All the while a low-pitched whine emitted from the back of his throat, some feral thing that had Gaius' hair standing on end.</p><p>Another desperate roar — this time the sound of a wounded animal — and Gaius sprang into action, tossing his gunblade aside and tearing a strip of fabric from the end of his sleeve to shove in Estinien's mouth. If an errant troop of Imperial soldiers found them, all of this <em>and more</em> would have been for naught.</p><p>Estinien's teeth closed around the foreign material, and Gaius jerked back in surprise, his eyes flicking — no, the dragoon was still asleep. Whatever the content of his nightmare, he longed to sink his fangs into something, and Gaius was rather thankful in that moment he hadn't tried to muffle Estinien with his hand instead.</p><p>The makeshift gag solved the problem of the noise, but if Estinien continued to flail about like this in his sleep, he was liable to pose a danger to more than himself. A moment of searching and Gaius came up easily with the lengths of rope they used for drying lines; rolling Estinien onto his back (<em>how had the dragoon continued to sleep through these ministrations but out of sheer exhaustion?</em>) he tied the man's wrists before him, and his ankles together, ensuring the knots he folded into the ropes would come apart easily were Estinien to wake before him.</p><p>Perhaps somehow calmed by another presence so near, Estinien mumbled incoherent syllables and gave the odd twitch. The fit seemed to have passed, but Gaius cared not to be woken by another.</p><p>Though he lay down on his bedroll facing away into the darkness, intent to fall back into the light slumber of a well-trained soldier, Gaius found himself soon turned the other direction, watching the edges and corners of Estinien's silhouette in the dull glow of the smoking coals until at last his tired eyes drifted closed.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>To the glinting rays of the sun through foliage Gaius awoke, only a little past dawn, but Estinien was already about his business. Neither spoke of the events of the night, but judging from Estinien's careful caution, his alert gaze resting on the back of Gaius' head whenever the latter was turned, he quite understood just why he had awoken bound and gagged like some bandit's prize.</p><p>"You are not doing that again," Gaius told him firmly a few hours into their silent hike through rolling foothills.</p><p>"I—" Estinien's retort was instant, heated, but Gaius spoke over him.</p><p>"That was the first night you've slept in five days. Your exhaustion could have killed both of us."</p><p>Estinien's jaw snapped audibly shut. Gaius could feel the glare boring into the back of his head. <em>Good. </em>It served Estinien right for having put their mission at risk for the sake of his pride.</p><p>Or perhaps it was not the admission of his night terrors, but the <em>content </em>of them, that drove Estinien to such extremes.</p><p>"What is it you dream of?" Gaius asked, breaking the terse silence that had stretched between them in the wake of the last exchange.</p><p>"It's not important." Estinien's favorite dismissal. But for now, at least, it was true, and Gaius let the subject drop, marching in silent single file for the rest of their daylight.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"Bind me," Estinien had said, once he had returned with the cookware he had rinsed in a nearby river; such tasks were for the evening, lest stray animals come rummaging through their camp in the dead of night.</p><p>He must have washed his hair, as well; the long silver strands hung freely, released from the tight braid he usually kept them in, the better for the long locks to dry even in the crisp air of the night.</p><p>Gaius had found his thoughts drifting; he had lost sleep the night before on Estinien's behalf, after all.</p><p>The dragoon crossed his arms, waiting for Gaius's response, and the latter gave him a hard stare.</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>He had thought the nightmares a result of Estinien's exhaustion. Perhaps they were the norm.</p><p>"I would not put us in further danger."</p><p>Gaius sighed and jerked his head toward Estinien's bedroll. "Lay down first."</p><p>Estinien did as he was bid, but not before reaching in his pack for the strip of cloth Gaius had gagged him with last night. "Lest you think I enjoy this," the dragoon said tersely, sitting down and tying his hair back afore he gagged himself, "I've decided I would rather not wager my life on an indignance."</p><p>"It's a necessity," Gaius said, wrapping Estinien's offered wrists in rope once the latter had shoved the cloth into his mouth and knotted it into place. Then came the dragoon's ankles, and lastly the thin blanket tossed over him. "Nothing more."</p><p>Sleep came much easier, and Gaius found himself falling into it even deeper than dreams.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A few days' progress in this manner, Gaius hoped once more to get answers out of his reticent companion. The terrain evened out quite a bit once they left the mountains, though they used forests and hills for cover rather than walk roads and paths. Such conditions aided conversation in a way that hiking did not.</p><p>"When did they begin?" He knew he did not have to preface the question with an explanation; there had been many topics they avoided, but none so ever-present.</p><p>"Does it matter?" Estinien snapped back, though the tone was without its usual edge; the long days of traveling had worn on both of them, enough so that even the chores Estinien so enjoyed were not quite so enticing.</p><p>"We are not exactly engaging in <em>stimulating </em>conversation besides," Gaius responded, not even glancing at Estinien as he spoke. Their surroundings were of little note, but he didn't wish to turn an ankle at this point of their trek.</p><p>Estinien had no rebuttal to offer to that, though for a time he was silent, and Gaius figured the dragoon had settled on ignoring him.</p><p>"When I was a boy," Estinien remarked finally, enough later that Gaius had almost forgotten what had caused their latest dry silence. "Ever since I— since the end of the war, they've been worse."</p><p><em>Since he had been possessed,</em> he had failed to say.</p><p>Gaius made a low noise of affirmation. He'd come to the same conclusion; though even so, having direct context for the rather dragonlike growls was of more comfort than hoping Estinien wasn't <em>turning in the night,</em> or whatever Ishgardians did.</p><p>"Might there be any more life-threatening secrets to share?"</p><p><em>This</em> silence he recognized. Estinien was ignoring him. Gaius had little reason to mind; he'd gotten more than he expected.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They made camp in the roots of a large evergreen; the accumulated years' worth of dead needles made for suitable support for travel-aching backs. Dinner was made, then eaten, then Estinien gathered the cookware and started off to the northwest; Gaius had not known there was a stream in that direction, much less how the <em>Eorzean </em>knew, but that was a question he was not like to have answered.</p><p>When his companion returned to camp, the sound of his steps drawing Gaius's attention from sharpening the edge of his gunblade, there was a pronounced catch in his gait, almost as if he were limping.</p><p>Gaius did not remark upon it.</p><p>The dragoon bustled about camp for a few moments, still with the uneven steps, and then settled into his bedroll, his wrists proffered — behind the small of his back. "On with it," he said tiredly, apparently choosing to let Gaius do the gagging.</p><p>Whatever Estinien was hiding, he meant to show Gaius his front as little as possible. An injury, likely — if he had fallen and injured his leg in some capacity (especially in the area of the thigh or hip) he would mean to keep it to himself lest he jeopardize their mission, ignoring the fact that he already had.</p><p>He rose slowly, reaching for the ropes and, deftly, the kit of medical supplies.</p><p>Gaius bound him by the wrists first, so Estinien would not be able to fend him off while he dealt with the injury. Then the ankles, so he would avoid being kicked in the teeth were he to have to suture a gash. Last came the gag, so he might spare himself being called a <em>"swiving whoreson"</em> or something of the like, and Gaius felt carefully through silvery locks to tie it without trapping Estinien's hair in the knot.</p><p>Then he seized Estinien by the hip and started to prod, diagnosing for an injury. At the dragoon's surprised grunt and turn of the head, Gaius frowned. "I will allow you your secrets, but if you are injured—"</p><p>Gaius' hand dipped too far in his haste and distraction, and the breathy moan its touch drew from Estinien reached him faster than understanding.</p><p>Beyond the thin barrier of Estinien's trousers, the bulge of his cock throbbed in Gaius's ungloved hand.</p><p>
  <em>Oh.</em>
</p><p>He <em>should</em> step away, <em>should </em>leave Estinien to his privacy.</p><p><em>Estinien had come back to camp like this.</em> Had he wanted to be discovered? Or had he meant to lay like this all night, driven — if the stiffness of his cock was any measure — nigh to completion and unable to reach it?</p><p>Gaius's heavy gaze flicked to Estinien's, seeing the dragoon's pupils blown wide.</p><p>The sight of him like this — such a renowned warrior, entirely at his mercy — was <em>arousing,</em> Gaius had to admit. He'd entertained no notions of attraction, as he had little and less space for such things in his mind with the Ascian threat occupying his faculties, but it had been so long... and with a willing partner before him, <em>begging</em> for his touch...</p><p>Estinien's sharp, wild gaze said enough — that despite his position, he could shed his bonds in merely a moment were he to wish it. <em>He desired this.</em></p><p>Gaius dragged his palm hard against the swell of Estinien's cock, and Estinien bucked up against him, his hips canting into Gaius's touch. A strangled-sounding noise wrung itself out through the cloth, and with a deep growl Gaius reached deep into Estinien's hair and pulled loose the knot of the gag.</p><p>"I would hear you," Gaius said, his voice coming out huskier than he had intended. It did not go unnoticed, for Estinien pressed his hips up into Gaius's hand with more urgency — or perhaps that was the result of the fist he had tangled in Estinien's braided hair.</p><p>His lower hand shifted to unlace Estinien's trousers, to slip beneath the hem of his smallclothes, and Gaius could not help the grunt of surprise as the tips of his fingers came up against a surface strangely slick. He surely had not come yet — Gaius would have noticed as much — and to better aid in his maneuvering he withdrew the hand from Estinien's hair and shifted to draw down the waist of his trousers.</p><p>From Estinien's navel where one might expect a trail of coarse hair to begin stretched, instead, a long and ever-widening trail of black scales, smooth to the touch though alight with a foreign heat. And from the ridges of his pelvis, a fold of flesh from which the gentle curve of his cock rose, pebbled with those same tiny scales but ridged in heavy bumps underneath, coming together at the head into a small taper.</p><p>A dark flush rose under the Elezen's visible skin, and Gaius was surprised at how... <em>arrested</em> he was by the sight, of Estinien's thighs parted and his slit dripping with slick.</p><p>Estinien's lower lip caught between his teeth, and he breathed heavily through his nose as Gaius's heavy gaze fell upon him as fully as the man's hands. While the equipment he possessed was <em>unusual,</em> the sight of a man like this laid bare for the taking was positively <em>indecent,</em> and whatever small part of Gaius that had continued to caution that he still had time to walk away from this fell conspicuously silent as his hand moved to dance light, callused fingers against the bony, scaled ridges of Estinien's pelvis.</p><p>Estinien tilted his head back and moaned as if he'd never been touched by a lover, and Gaius didn't know and didn't care about the truth of the statement; whatever this heady tension, they both meant to serve a purpose, to sate a need, and at that acknowledgment Gaius finally, <em>finally </em>ceded control to his baser instincts, hungering only to use and be used.</p><p>Lowering himself, Gaius locked eyes with Estinien, closing his fist loosely about the base of Estinien's cock and stroking upward, the better to get a feel for the wet slick that coated it — and for how easily Estinien melted in his touch.</p><p>The latter strained in his bonds, stifling a moan — he was surprisingly noisy, like this — and Gaius marveled at how sensitive he must be if only a few strokes had him arching like a virgin. Gaius's own erection strained in his trousers, but he ignored it for the more pressing matter at hand.</p><p>A temptation struck. The better to wring more pleasure from Estinien's desperate form, Gaius dipped his head to wrap his lips around the tapered tip of Estinien's cock. The sour taste exploded against his tongue even as Estinien let out a sharp whine, trembling beneath Gaius's firm hands that pinned his hips against his bedroll. Much longer like this and Estinien would reach his finish; Gaius had little care for how long Estinien might enjoy himself, only that he had had his fill before he allowed the dragoon his climax. His tongue probed the ridges along the underside of Estinien's stiff cock, tracing beneath each one, and Estinien shook and cursed and writhed with each ilm Gaius took him deeper, until a wrangled <em>"please"</em> fell from his lips.</p><p>Gaius's eyes flicked up. his pace slowing immediately, his first instinct at the onset of begging to <em>deny</em> the reward, and it was at that moment he heard a loud tearing, snapping noise, and then Estinien's fist in his hair.</p><p>The dragoon had broken free of his thick rope bonds only to coax Gaius to take him deeper, and the sheer wild desperation in the Elezen's escaping growl drove Gaius to a height of arousal that had him canting his hips against the bedroll seeking any sort of friction.</p><p>He had meant to draw back; he had meant to reclaim control over himself and the situation here at the moment when Estinien found his release, but Estinien worked into his mouth with only a few short strokes and then stilled, his cock twitching as he came in Gaius's practiced mouth, the sour flavor and inhumanly thick texture heavy under his tongue.</p><p>When Estinien had relaxed enough to loose his hold on Gaius's head, Gaius pulled free and turned his head to the side to spit into the scattered pine needles beside their isolated campsite; yet as soon as he made the gesture to rise and step away, the better to take care of himself in private without prolonging the exchange, he found himself instead pushed backward to land heavily on the forest floor.</p><p>Estinien was atop him, straddling him, still that wild hunger in his gaze; he spoke clearly, however, albeit in a deep growl. <em>"I would not have you claiming debts unpaid."</em> Hot breath washed over Gaius's ear and his cock stiffened further; he had always appreciated a partner willing to match his dominant inclinations, and the knowledge that Estinien had both the strength and the intent to take exactly what he wanted from Gaius without brooking complaint left his mouth dry in anticipation.</p><p>Deft, long fingers dipped into the front of his trousers and wrapped around his aching cock, <em>already slick</em> — <em>by any gods there were above and below, Estinien had used his own</em> — and Gaius could not help the strangled groan Estinien's perfect fist tore from him, nor the fact that he fucked into it immediately, almost <em>wantonly.</em> They had gone far beyond caring about pride or appearances, and Gaius was too old a man to have rosy preconceptions about the situation they found themselves in, which amounted to a mutual satisfying of desire; he chased his release at the tips of Estinien's fingers, and found it when the dragoon bit hard at the lobe of his ear, not as a means to mark so much as a release of pretense, a shallow dip into the fervor Estinien held himself at the precipice of.</p><p>The reminder of the nature of the creature that held Gaius's cock in a vice grip had him spilling with a shiver, into his trousers as if he were eighteen and partaking in some broom-closet dalliance with a soldier he had met twenty minutes ago.</p><p>Though Estinien stroked him slowly, milking his release from him, they soon — after a minute devoted to recalling how to breathe and just which mask to affix upon their shattered facades — drew apart, each to change and Gaius especially to rinse the taste of Estinien's come out of his mouth with his canteen.</p><p>They did not speak as Estinien took their wash and canteens to the stream, and they did not speak as he used the rope he hadn't destroyed in the fervor of sex to hang the clothes they had soiled, and they did not speak as Estinien rummaged for other supplies with which to bind himself, tying knots with precision and ignoring Gaius's stare as he realized the dragoon had been capable all along of doing the work without his aid.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As traveling companions went, Estinien was hardly the most abysmal.</p><p>The man was silent, orderly enough, and strangely given to the more mindless tasks required of camping on the road; yet the noises he <em>did</em> make were of the kind that would haunt Gaius in the depths of his dreams.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>the book club made me do it. <a href="https://discord.gg/HjrsHFZ">join us </a>for even worse bullshit</p></blockquote></div></div>
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